Title: Climate Refugia and Scale: How Complex Terrain Shapes the Response of Biota to Changing Climate

A concern for species conservation is whether or not the rate of climate change will exceed the rate at which species can adapt or move to suitable environments. At the same time there is increasing awareness that climatic heterogeneity driven by complex terrain may spatially buffer the effects of rapid climate changes. This has prompted interest in the study of climate refugia and an examination of historical and future rates of climate change. Here I describe climate change velocity (both climate displacement rate and direction) for minimum temperature, actual evapotranspiration, and climatic water deficit over the contiguous US during the 20th century (1916-2005). I describe how our perception of climate change vulnerability is sensitive to climate data resolution and our capacity to account for the influence of terrain on climate.

Dr. Dobrowski received a B.S. In Forestry from U.C.Berkeley, an M.S. in Horticulture from U.C. Davis and a PhD in Ecology from U.C. Davis. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Landscape Ecology at the University of Montana in the College of Forestry and Conservation. His work links research in landscape ecology, historical ecology, biogeography, mountain meteor-ology, and global change science, to answer questions about the biophysical drivers of species dis-tributions and adaptive strategies of species to mitigate against environmental change.

Dr. Dobrowski is hosted by Dr. Jonathan Greenberg. If you wish to meet with the speaker, please contact Jonathan at jgrn@illinois.edu.